The CUNY Academic Commons is a social networking platform for CUNY faculty, staff, and graduate students. It provides tools like blogs, groups, profiles, forums, and wikis. Users can connect with colleagues, share projects, and find others with similar interests. The site also hosts discussion groups and blogs on various topics. Members are encouraged to get involved and help build the community.

2. T h e C omm on s
The CUNY Academic Commons is a social-networking platform created by and for CUNY faculty, staff, and
graduate students. Through a variety of features, including blogs, groups, member profiles, discussion
forums, and wiki pages, the Commons provides you with tools to create your own networks, connect to your
colleagues, and share your projects with the larger CUNY community and the wider public.
G e tt in g S t ar t ed
Create and fill out your member profile to get Members Case Study
the most out of the Commons. Use your
Joseph Ugoretz, Associate
profile to describe your research interests,
Dean of Teaching, Learning,
promote your projects, and link to your other
and Technology at Macaulay
websites or social-media accounts. Connect
Honors College, uses his
with your colleagues by adding them as
profile to share links to his
friends and sending messages via public or
blog, his Twitter account, and
private messaging systems. Searchable
his Flickr photos. He also high-
keywords can help you find others across the
lights the YouTube channel
CUNY system who share your interests.
sponsored by MHC.
Ma k i ng C on n ec t io ns
Across the Commons, you will find hundreds Groups Case Study
of groups that reflect the diversity of the
university. Groups are easy to create and When two professors from
join, and they can be public, private, or Queens College needed
hidden. Each one comes equipped with advice on creating an accurate
forums that allow members to generate survey of student gaming
discussion within the community, as well as habits, they found assistance
space to upload and archive documents that by posting in the forum of The
can be shared with other group members. CUNY Games Network, a
Each group has a variety of tools for keeping research group that focuses on
members up to speed with the latest news, games and learning. Members
including email notifications when new of the group helped craft a
content is added. Groups can help small or survey that included up-to-date
large communities communicate effectively references to current gaming
with one another; they provide a dynamic platforms and genres.
space in which committees and departments
can work together in a collaborative fashion.

3. A d d i ng Y ou r V o ic e
The Commons hosts a vibrant community of Blogs Case Study
bloggers who share their passions and
Aaron Kendall, a graduate
insights with their peers. Members can
student studying archaeology
create a virtually unlimited number of blogs;
at the CUNY Graduate Center,
these flexible online publishing systems can
used his blog Turf Walls to
be used as project homepages, promotional
document a summer spent
websites for recent book and article publica-
excavating a historical site in
tions, or ongoing discussion of events and
Iceland. His posts drew a
news stories that interest you.
diverse audience of specialists
and non-specialists who
The CUNY Academic Commons fosters
followed the progress of his dig
collaborative work on its wiki, which gives
from afar.
members the opportunity to contribute to the
collective body of knowledge housed within
the university. We currently host wiki pages
that cover topics ranging from philosophy to
web publishing to ePortfolios to composition,
and we invite you to add your own resources
to the site.
You can use the Commons to create social
connections, as well. CUNY Pie, an adventur-
ous group of pizza aficionados, hosts monthly
meetings at some of New York’s most legend-
ary pizzerias.
H o w Do I J oin ?
Point your browser to commons.gc.cuny.edu and click on “sign up” to create an account. Registration
requires a cuny.edu email address, though you are welcome to associate another email address with your
account after your profile has been created. You may also invite your colleagues to the Commons after
your account becomes active.
Assistance and Sol uti ons
The CUNY Academic Commons has a dedicated team that provides support to members of the site. Our
Community Facilitators can answer questions and can be reached by clicking the Help tab located at the
top of the page. We appreciate suggestions on ways to improve the Commons, and we encourage you to
reach out to us with ideas.
P ri v ac y
The CUNY Academic Commons values your privacy. Throughout the site, many features allow you to
control the visibility of your work. If you have concerns about your privacy, please reach out to the Commu-
nity Facilitators, who will be happy to answer any specific questions you may have.
Visit us at commons.gc.cuny.edu
Send questions and comments to commons@gc.cuny.edu